Marin officials urge fracking ban

Civic Center officials are seeking a state moratorium on fracking, saying that until public safety and health can be guaranteed, a ban should be imposed on the controversial hydraulic fracturing process used to extract fossil fuels.

Supervisors Kate Sears and Steve Kinsey, declaring that injecting pressurized water and toxic chemicals into rock formations to unleash gas and oil poses "great potential harm to the public," won a unanimous vote of approval for a ban on Tuesday.

A board resolution says a moratorium on the unregulated process should remain in effect "until state and federal legislation and regulations are put in place that repeal exceptions to the state Safe Drinking Water Act, guarantee public health and safety, mitigate the effects on climate change, protect the environment, allow government access and testing of chemicals used, anticipate merging extraction technologies and require full disclosure and testing of sites, with adequate time for public input."

Ken Jones of Greenbrae, a fracking foe, said momentum to ban the practice pending further study is "growing fast" and lauded deft editing work by Supervisor Sears "for getting this resolution just right."

A parade of speakers representing a variety of groups expressed support, including the county Youth Commission, Mainstreet Moms, Californians Against Fracking, and Food and Water Watch. One speaker called the resolution unbalanced, saying economic benefits of the procedure, including jobs and tax revenue, were not mentioned.

Robert Mason, a field representative for Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, read a statement from him calling fracking a "real and present threat to the environment and public safety" and saying he "remains supportive of a moratorium."

Roy Phillips, a board member of the California Solar Energy Association, said he found it "ironic" that the same county board that last week rejected plans for a solar farm in a nursery near Novato was now calling for a ban on fracking. Alternative clean energy such as solar, he noted, "would have solved these problems."

The county board, bowing to neighborhood protests, voted 3-1 last week to boot the solar project. Kinsey dissented, and Susan Adams was absent.

Adams, apologizing to Novato area Supervisor Judy Arnold, was critical of the solar vote that she missed a week earlier. Adams indicated a board move to keep such solar projects in limbo pending preparation of a regulatory ordinance next year was akin to "setting a precedent for long delays." Adams called for policies that "allow us to move forward expeditiously" with clean energy.

The board then voted 3-2, with Kinsey and Adams dissenting, to adopt a resolution ratifying the decision to reject Green Point nursery owner Jim Balestreri's plan for a 664-kilowatt photovoltaic array.